"Xenophobia and other words tied to global news and political rhetoric reflected the worldwide interest in the unfortunate rise of fear of otherness in 2016, making it the clear choice for Word of the Year," said Dictionary.com CEO Liz McMillan. "While we can never know the exact reasons why xenophobia trended in our lookups this year, this reflects a desire in our users to understand the significant discourse surrounding global events."

Dictionary.com is the second major publication to come out with a politically-charged word of the year. A few weeks ago, Oxford Dictionaries selected "post-truth," a nod to the divisiveness of the election and the controversial Brexit vote.